The invention relates to a bearing box which provides a housing for thrust bearings, radial bearings, self-aligning bearings and other types of bearings, the bearing box being formed of a plurality of shell sections which can be fitted together to provide a housing for the bearing.
In the construction of ball bearings, roller bearings and the like, which have bearing races with intermediate bearing means therebetween, mainly for rapidly rotating shafts, it is generally usual to make the bearing boxes of cast iron, particularly gray iron, by casting, machining, finishing and combining two iron shell sections which jointly embrace an outer bearing race surface. The shell sections are generally held together by outer housings, which also are commonly made of cast iron.
In addition to a recess which fits an outer bearing race surface, such bearing boxes generally have sealing recesses for sealing rings. They also have additional recesses for interconnecting elements such as snap rings, lubricant channels, centering provisions and the like. All these are usually formed by machining and finishing operations, with removal of metal chips, after the metal-casting process. Similarly, the outer housings are generally provided with smooth and properly dimensioned inner surfaces, as well as bolt holes and the like, by separate machining and finishing.
Due to these machining and finishing operations, the production of the usual bearing boxes is rather expensive. Also, with the conventional ball and roller bearings, each dimension of the shaft or other rotor therein requires different bearing shells.